"If you have any outstanding fee, that translates to money," the rapper said. "There's a price associated with it. I never paid. That's why I don't have my degree."

The special moment was a surprise to everyone in the audience and on the stage, and after the former provost and his former professor Dr. Julia Upton presented him with the piece of paper — which represented the time that he spent at the university — J. Cole joked that the school let him slide and that he would send it off to one woman in particular: his mom.